time zones

The best time for a call between the US and Europe — and the weeks each year it moves

By Jack Jay · 10 November 2026 · 4 min read

Short answer: if one side is on the US East Coast and the other is in the UK, meet between 9 AM and noon New York time, which is 2 to 5 PM in London. The easiest single slot is 10 AM in New York, 3 PM in London — late morning for one side, mid-afternoon for the other, and nobody's lunch.

Everything below assumes a working day of 9 to 5 in each city, and it is worked out from the same time zone data your phone uses.

The shared hours, city by city

CitiesApart (most of the year)Both at workEasiest time
New York – London5 hours9 AM–12 PM New York (2–5 PM London)10 AM / 3 PM
New York – Berlin, Paris, Amsterdam6 hours9–11 AM New York (3–5 PM Berlin)10 AM / 4 PM
Chicago – London6 hours9–11 AM Chicago (3–5 PM London)10 AM / 4 PM
San Francisco – London8 hoursnone8:30 AM / 4:30 PM
San Francisco – Berlin9 hoursnone8 AM / 5 PM

Lisbon and Dublin keep London's clock; Madrid, Rome, Stockholm and Warsaw keep Berlin's. Boston, Toronto and Miami keep New York's.

The weeks the gap moves

The US and Europe both change their clocks twice a year, but not on the same days. The US moves on the second Sunday of March and the first Sunday of November. The UK and the European Union move on the last Sunday of March and the last Sunday of October.

So for a few weeks every year the gap is an hour shorter. In 2027 that is March 14 to March 28 and October 31 to November 7. In those weeks:

  • New York and London are 4 hours apart, and share four working hours: 9 AM to 1 PM in New York, 1 to 5 PM in London.
  • San Francisco and London gain the one shared hour they get all year: 9 to 10 AM in San Francisco, 4 to 5 PM in London.
  • New York and Berlin share three hours instead of two.

This is the part that catches teams out. A recurring invite keeps its time in the organiser's time zone, so for those weeks it lands an hour earlier for everyone on the other side of the Atlantic. The calendar is right — the 10 AM New York call really is at 2 PM in London that week — but the person in London who has kept 3 PM free out of habit is now an hour late. Put the two dates in your team calendar in February and October.

When nobody overlaps: California and Europe

From San Francisco there is no hour when both sides are at work, except those few weeks. Somebody gives something up. The fairest single time is 8:30 AM in San Francisco, 4:30 PM in London (or 8 AM and 5 PM in Berlin): half an hour early for one side, half an hour late for the other.

If the meeting recurs, three things make it bearable:

  1. Rotate who takes the bad hour. Early for California one week, late for Europe the next. A standing slot that always falls on the same side tells that side something.
  2. Keep the live call for what needs to be live — a decision, a disagreement, a review. Updates can be read.
  3. Let people book you in their own time. A booking link shows your open times in the visitor's own time zone, so nobody has to do the maths, and nobody picks 4 PM their time thinking it was yours.

Make the shared hours count

When the overlap is two or three hours a day, a meeting that runs long eats most of it. Two habits help:

  • Write down what was decided, with names. The people who could not make the hour need to know who agreed to what — not a summary that says "the team discussed". Meetful writes every line of a call under the name of whoever said it, and has the summary and the action items ready when you hang up. It is free and runs in the browser, and guests join from a link with no account.
  • Send the notes before the other side starts its day. A US afternoon call's notes arrive in Europe overnight; read with coffee, they replace the next morning's status meeting.

Look up any two cities

For any pair — when both are at work, the easiest time, an hour-by-hour table and every date in the coming year the clocks change — see Best time to meet. For example New York and London or London and San Francisco. For more than two cities at once there is the free time zone planner.

Sources

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